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Most folks are familiar with the Saffir Simpson hurricane scale and while it’s very useful, it also has some drawbacks. It’s greatest attribute is that the public understands it, but I’m not alone among meteorologists who think the time has come to replace it. We need a new scale that will better indicate the destructive potential of a tropical cyclone, and there are some good candidates out there. The main …

Big Trouble Coming Irma has become a real monster today with sustained winds at 185 mph. Only one hurricane is known that was stronger. This storm reminds me of the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 with 200 mph wind gusts in the Florida Keys. A reminder, when looking at the NHC track forecasts, you should ignore the center line and focus on the cone, which is based on the average forecast …

Every cancer specialist has the cure for cancer in his desk, and every climate scientist has proof that carbon dioxide is not causing global warming. Oh, and every physicist has a paper showing Einstein’s theory of relativity is all wrong, and I need to come clean as well since I’ve been hiding a method of dissipating hurricanes for 35 years. All these earth shattering, Nobel prize winning, pieces of science …

As a reporter in Tampa was doing a story on an Alligator in the road yesterday, someone drove past and screamed “Fake News!” I suspect the gator was real, and the story was factual, but this is happening rather frequently. You might ask how people can be so deceived that they will accept news only from those who tell them what they want to hear. Unfortunately, this is the America we …

By Shane M Hanlon I had a discussion the other day with a friend who is in the process of updating her resume as she’s likely to be promoted at her current job. She was lamenting about how time intensive it was and how she couldn’t quite remember everything that she’s accomplished since her last update while also worrying about what to fit into it due to space constraints. I …

The image above is from GOES-16 (Ctsy. CIRA) and you can easily see the dry dusty Saharan air to the North and east of Tropical Depression 4. This layer of dusty air is called the SAL for Saharan Air Layer, and it often inhibits tropical cyclones. It’s already impacting TD 4. The new GOES-16 continues to wow we meteorologists. Truly, a new era is underway. Update 12 AM EDT 7 July) …

By Shane M Hanlon I’m a disease ecologist by training. As a graduate student I investigated how agricultural runoff, mainly in the form of pesticides, alters the effects of fungal disease in amphibians. I still collaborate on primarily disease-related projects with my peers. And, as an added bonus, I get to spend three weeks each summer teaching a disease ecology course at Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology (- the place where …

By Shane M Hanlon I’m the Senior Specialist in AGU’s Sharing Science program. I giggle to myself on occasion when I hear it said aloud, not because of anything specific with the title or my duties therein, but because I am most comfortable with another title – scientist. I have a PhD in biology with a focus in disease ecology and ecotoxicology. I came into science communication and policy through …

The Death of Expertise “Tom Nichols, a professor of national security affairs at the US Naval War College, says America has become a country “obsessed with the worship of its own ignorance.” Americans have always been skeptical of intellectuals and experts. Today, says Nichols, that attitude has mutated into outright hostility. In general, Americans have never been so willing to reject the knowledge of those who actually know something. This …

By Shane M Hanlon Over the past month, I have noticed a new type of #scicomm emerging. It’s not through a new technology, rather, it’s exploiting an existing one. Spurred by the Tweets of President Donald Trump, scientists and science-enthusiasts alike have begun to insert science facts, or #scijack, into tweet threads responding to President Trump, as well as other prominent political figures. The idea is this – many, many …

Intense heat, with low humidity has led to a horrible catastrophe in Portugal. The hot and dry weather in Europe led to a firestorm in Portugal that killed at least 60 people. A strong upper level high pressure system will stay over the area tomorrow and little or no rain is in sight. This high pressure is bringing warm weather all the way into the UK with highs tomorrow in …

So, why such a small Heat Advisory? Look at the temps. at 11 PM EDT Monday night: Note the temps. in Central Philadelphia and Wilmington are around 6-10 degrees F. warmer than the surrounding areas. Yes it’s the urban heat island effect, and Philly has a big one.The extra heat pushed Philly beyond the criteria for a Heat Advisory, while areas away from the city were not hot enough. You may …

Since the U.S. pulled out of the Paris accord last week, old climate myths have been crawling out of their coffins. This includes some real winners from the past like “They said in the 70’s we were going to freeze to death!”, but I have yet to hear the “but grapes grew in Greenland!” claim. Just in case, John Cook at Skeptical Science has a long list of these along …

Raul Grijalva, the ranking member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, sent a hot letter this week to the Secretary of the Interior. It was about the removal of the first line of a USGS press release last week. The press release was about a newly published paper showing a dramatic increase in coastal flooding as sea level rises, and I wrote about it last week here. Even Richard Nixon …

You really should read Tom Friedman’s book Thank You For Being Late. He skillfully put into words something I’ve been thinking about for a long while now about education and why a high school diploma is no longer enough. Every student needs to understand this, and students and parents, you ignore it at your peril. The Culture Issue Our educational system could certainly use improvement since, in most of the …

This is a cross-post from my friend and fellow meteorologist Guy Walton. Guy is working on an extreme temperature index that will take into account not just the magnitude of the record but weight this by the length of the record. Breaking a record at a site with 50 years of data is not as important as doing the same in a place with 135 years of data. The next …